The Guide Plate

We will next create a mechanical design using the different coordinate entry methods.

The rule for creating CAD designs and drawings is that they should be created at
full size using real-world units. The CAD database contains all the definitions of the
geometric entities and the design is considered as a virtual, full-sized object. Only when
a printer or plotter transfers the CAD design to paper is the design scaled to fit on a
sheet. The tedious task of determining a scale factor so that the design will fit on a
sheet of paper is taken care of by the CAD system. This allows the designers and CAD
operators to concentrate their attention on the more important issues – the design.

1. Select the Line command icon in the Draw toolbar. In the command prompt
area, near the bottom of the AutoCAD® graphics window, the message “_line Specify
first point:” is displayed. AutoCAD® expects us to identify the starting location of a
straight line.

2. In the command prompt area, we will locate the starting point of our design at
the origin of the world coordinate system.

Command: _line Specify first point: 0,0 [ENTER] (Type 0,0 in the command
prompt area and press the [ENTER] key once.)

3. We will create a horizontal line by entering the absolute coordinates of the

second point.
 Specify next point or [Undo]: 5.5,0 [ENTER]

The line we created is aligned to the bottom edge of the drawing window. Let us
adjust the view of the line by using the Pan Realtime command.

4. Click on the Pan Realtime icon in the Standard toolbar area. The icon is the
picture of a hand with four arrows.

The Pan command enables us to move the view to a different position. This
function acts as if you are using a video camera.

5. Move the cursor, which appears as a hand inside the graphics window, near
the center of the drawing window, then push down the left-mouse-button and drag the
display toward the right and top side until we can see the sketched line. (Notice the
scroll bars can also be used to adjust viewing of the display.)
 6. Press the [Esc] key to exit the Pan command. Notice that AutoCAD® goes
back to the Line command.

7. We will create a vertical line by using the relative rectangular coordinates entry
method, relative to the last point we specified:

Specify next point or [Close/Undo]: @0,2.5 [ENTER]

8. We can mix any of the entry methods in positioning the locations of the
endpoints. Move the cursor to the Status Bar area, and turn ON the GRID and SNAP
options.

9. Create the next line by picking the location, world coordinates (8,2.5), on the
screen.

10. We will next use the relative polar coordinates entry method, relative to the
last point we specified:

Specify next point or [Close/Undo]: @3<90 [ENTER]

(Distance is 3 inches with an angle of 90 degrees.)

11. Using the relative rectangular coordinates entry method to create the next
line, we can imagine a reference coordinate system aligned at the previous point.
Coordinates are measured along the two reference axes.

Specify next point or [Close/Undo]: @-1.5,1 [ENTER] (-1.5 and 1 inches are
measured relative to the reference point.)
 12. Move the cursor directly to the left of the last point and use the direct distance
entry technique by entering 6.5 [ENTER].

13. For the last segment of the sketch, we can use the Close option to connect
back to the starting point. Inside the graphics window, right-mouse-click and a popup
menu appears on the screen.

14. Select Close with the left-mouse-button to connect back to the starting point
and end the Line command.
Creating Circles

The menus and toolbars in AutoCAD® 2007 are designed to allow the CAD operators to
quickly activate the desired commands. Besides using the Draw toolbar, we can also
select the different Draw commands through the pull-down menus.

1. In the pull-down menus, select:

[Draw] > [Circle] > [Center, Diameter]

2. In the command prompt area, the message “Specify center point for circle or
[3P/2P/Ttr (tan tan radius)]:” is displayed. AutoCAD expects us to identify the
location of a point or enter an option. We can use any of the four coordinate entry
methods to identify the desired location. We will enter the world coordinates
(2.5,3) as the center point for the first circle.

Specify center point for circle or [3P/2P/Ttr (tan tan radius)]: 2.5,3 [ENTER]

3. In the command prompt area, the message “Specify diameter of circle:” is

displayed.
Specify diameter of circle: 2.5 [ENTER]

4. Inside the graphics window, right-mouse click to bring up the popup option menu.

5. Pick Repeat Center, Diameter with the left-mouse-button in the popup menu to
repeat the last command.
6. Using the relative rectangular coordinates entry method, relative to the center-
point coordinates of the first circle, we specify the location as (2.5,2).

Specify center point for circle or [3P/2P/Ttr (tan tan radius)]: @2.5,2 [ENTER]

7. In the command prompt area, the message “Specify Diameter of circle:

<2.50>” is displayed. The default option for the Circle command in AutoCAD® is
to specify the radius and the last radius used is also displayed in brackets.
 Specify Diameter of circle: 1.5 [ENTER]

8. Save the exercise drawing.